Goodbye MATC, say hello to Madison College
Eric Ely
Issue date: 11/11/09 Section: News
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"The driving force behind the change is the confusion with MATC Milwaukee," explained Diane Walleser, Director of Marketing and Enrollment Development. This confusion between the two unaffiliated schools has been well documented in the past and the change from MATC to Madison College is the school's way of addressing the issue.
Feedback from students and staff were in part responsible for the change. Internet searches lead perspective students and people seeking employment to the MATC Milwaukee Web site. Another reason for the nickname change to Madison College was the unique learning environment provided by Madison College.
"An acronym nickname doesn't really reflect what we do," Walleser said. The acronym MATC is very nondescript; it could apply to a number of different institutions. Nothing about it implies a college reference. The new nickname, Madison College, addresses this issue. "MATC could stand for anything," she said.
"Madison College begins to explain our depth of offerings as well as communicating that we are a college and that Madison is our district," said Walleser, "and MATC did not do that."
Student involvement played a large part in the nickname change process. An e-mail was sent to students and staff that generated 2,157 responses. This survey asked students what a good nickname would be that would match the legal name Madison Area Technical College. Madison College received the most votes.
The survey also asked what students and staff thought a logo should communicate. "The things they said were important were credibility, quality and future. If you look at the new logo you can actually see all those things built into it. There is the path, or road, that talks about future, the crest or shield means credibility and quality and the image of the capitol speaks to what makes us unique," Walleser said.
The development of the new Madison College logo cost $25,000 and was designed by Madison College alum Mark Schmitz of ZD Studios. "We are very happy with the logo. It's pretty hard for a logo to communicate everything you want it to but we think that the work that he did based on the survey results really adequately reflects who we are as an institution so we're really pleased with what he came up with," Walleser said of the logo.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
greenlayk
Bruce Green
posted 11/10/09 @ 3:56 PM CST
Great story and quite timely.
I think the new logo should have had a more prominent place in the copy though. A 250px X 250px image surrounded by text would have worked better to integrate the subject and its image. (Continued…)
Anonymous Faculty Member (for my protection)
posted 11/13/09 @ 2:20 PM CST
Wasn't it just two or three issues ago that The Clarion ran a front-page story about the Board recommending our college "keep the Madison Area Technical College name?" How things change in 6-8 weeks. (Continued…)
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